The chairman of the Patrick County School Board said employees in the school division will receive a pay hike, and he issued a plea to school employees who fear retaliation.

“I keep hearing our employees are afraid of retaliation, afraid to speak their minds,” Ronnie Terry said. “I am trying to find anyone who will talk to me. Call me or call one of the other school board members. Please.”

Recently, several school division employees addressed the Patrick County Board of Supervisors with concerns about retaliation in the workplace.

“I can guarantee they won’t be retaliated against if they come and talk to me, but I need to talk to them, the school board members need to hear from them, to figure out what’s going on,” Terry said.

“They will not be retaliated against if they talk to me,” Terry said. “If I can find out what is going on, I will be able to protect them from anything” in terms of repercussions.

Schools Superintendent Bill Sroufe said he called county administration after the May 22 meeting with questions about the outcome.

Terry said Sroufe was encouraged to ask for a copy of the minutes of that meeting through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Sroufe also said he was advised to ask for a recorded copy of the minutes, and was instructed to complete a FOIA form.

Sroufe said he was not surprised to hear some of the comments, “because I’ve heard it for a number of years … People say things without specifics. As a superintendent, I know not everybody is always going to agree with me and/or the decisions that come out of the central office.”

“I’ve worked in four different school districts, and we do operate a little bit differently” here than in some of the others, Sroufe said.

Because the division is small, “we do try to talk to people a number of times before any disciplinary action takes place. Because we’re a small district, we are able to speak to people several times” and work toward any improvements that may be needed, he said.

However, he is not sure what prompts retaliation and other concerns, but suspects a number of factors may contribute.

For instance, Virginia is 32nd in the country in terms of teacher pay, Sroufe said of a recent survey by the National Education Association. Virginia was ranked 30 last year, the survey showed.

Additionally, Sroufe said “teachers are unfortunately, from a media view, not shown in the best light. Teachers feel unappreciated. They wear many hats,” he said.

“I encourage anybody, if they feel retaliated against or feel they’re going to be fired” unfairly to “reach out to a school board member,” Sroufe said.

“Any school board member will be glad to talk to anybody, but we can’t help them if they don’t come and talk to us,” Terry said. “It’s hard to solve anything if you don’t talk, and I’d love to speak with anyone.”

PAY RAISE

Terry said school employees will receive a 2 percent raise, starting in January. He explained the school board asked county supervisors for help in funding the raise for two main reasons.

One, state funds for the state approved pay hike will cover only Standards of Quality (SOQ) positions, which are teachers and some aides, Terry said. That is because the state pays only for pay for certain teachers, aides, etc., for about 3.5 schools. There are seven schools in Patrick County.

That, Terry said, is because the state uses a formula to determine the number of schools Patrick County should have based on student population.

Sroufe said the state formula “is basically an algorithm” that does not take geography, community or other factors things into account.

The second reason the county was asked for additional funds was because bus drivers, custodians and other positions were not included in the raise approved by the state, Terry said, and noted he and other school board members felt strongly that any pay raise should be division wide.

“We wanted it to cover everybody,” he said. “I don’t think 2 percent is enough, but it is something. We gave a 2 percent raise last year, too. With this one, we’re working our way up a little at a time. That’s the best we can do.”

The state contribution for the raises that will begin in January is $98,818, Sroufe said.

The rest, a little more than $108,182, will be made up by the school division, Terry said, and explained the funds will come from attrition and not replacing an administrative assistant.

“We did some shifting and cut some things to make it work,” Terry said. “We talked about just giving what the state gives for the SOQ positions, but we just didn’t want to do that.”